Category Archives: Events

[no definition] is the CUSU LGBT termly magazine. Each issue has a distinct theme – this one’s is Politics. It’s free, it’s fantastic, and its first unveiling is at the [nd] launch. So come pick up a copy and flick through to get a taste of Cambridge Uni queer poetry, prose, and art!

The event is completely free, and completely open: come one, come all, to enjoy the no doubt splendid music selection, and the very best booze and nibbles that Cambridge’s supermarkets have to offer.

Bridgemas is upon us! So come on down to Old Hall in Queens’ College (8-10pm) for a super-special Christmas party! – there’ll be loads of food including mince pies and Christmas cake and the mulled wine will be flowing all night!

Get in the party mood, meet great people and get wristbands for reduced entry to Spectrum afterwards!

Join Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, along with music and poetry band, Little Machine, for a fantastic evening of words spoken and sung! Having heard Carol Ann Duffy give a live reading before, I know she’s totally awesome and this looks set to be a fantastic evening!

The event will be held in the Old Library of Emmanuel College on Saturday 10th November at 7pm.

Tickets are being sold to CUSU LGBT at the reduced rate of £20 each, with profits being donated to Camfed, a local charity which supports the education of girls and young women in Africa. If you would like to attend, please could you email me (lgbt-president@cusu.cam.ac.uk) and send a cheque payable to ‘Freya Ferguson’ to me at Newnham College. Payments must be received by Thursday 1st November – make sure you allow a couple of days for UMS!

Join us for a super-special [nd] Launch + Halloween Party on the 31st October at Mong Hall, Sidney Sussex College, 8-10pm! Not only will there be lots of copies of our lovely new edition of [no definition], our termly magazine, which is this term themed around ‘bodies’ – there will also be the usual mountain of *free* drinks and food! And as if this wasn’t exciting enough already, we’ll be adding a spooky twist with Halloween themed sweets and decorations! There is also a chance to win some fabulous prizes including jars of sweets and bottles of bubbly in our Halloween costume competition! – so get your vampire fangs and your witches’ hats on and head on down! Everyone who comes to [nd] launch will also be able to get tickets for ‘Spectre at Spectrum’, our fabulous Halloween club-night, at the reduced price of £2!!

I’m Emma Brookes and I’m running for Finance and Sponsorship Officer. Whilst I have never held a committee post as a 3rd year Law student I am used to – and enjoy – juggling a lot of responsibilities. I am currently an active member of a sports team, several societies and volunteer whenever I can. I’m passionate about all of the activities I commit to and pride myself in being dependable and reliable.

I think I would make a valuable member of the CUSU LGBT committee. I appreciate that the F&S Role may soon become redundant but I will happily contribute to the committee in any way possible. I have always enjoyed contributing to team work activities, particularly charity events such as pro bono and Access Scheme work. Likewise, I believe my interaction with professionals as a law student will provide me with the necessary skill to approach potential sponsors, if required.

I have enjoyed being a part of the LGBT community at Cambridge and I would appreciate the opportunity to give back to the community by being a part of the CUSU LGBT committee.

Emi Dunn ([no definition] Editor):

Last year when I came to Cambridge, I was really pleased to find ND – a magazine catering to the LGBT community, offering a safe space to debate the issues and questions pertinent to us whilst also providing an outlet for the diversity and creativity that gives lots of us a much needed break from academia. As editor, I would keep up this tradition of both debate and art, holding regular brainstorming sessions each term to come up with engaging themes that you as a community care about, and pursuing more collaborations; such as last year’s feature with Yale on the DADT policy. I would hope to encourage more contributions – of illustration, photography, poetry, reviews, short stories and articles, from both freshers and existing members of our community, as well as reaching farther afield for some guest articles from other universities. I have already got some ideas of my own about what I’d like to see in future issues of ND, perhaps introducing a ‘culture’ or ‘reviews’ section for our local community or a ‘debates’ section featuring your thoughts on a termly ‘issue’, and look forward to hearing more suggestions from you. I have a familiarity with the magazine (writing for and helping out the previous editor with proof-reading, alongside doing the cover-work for Michaelmas 2011’s issue and illustrating Easter 2011’s) and I’d like to build on Hattie, our last editor’s, brilliant design work. I am pretty well qualified to do this, with experience in creating magazines; graphic design and illustration; a pretty confident command of publishing software; and most of all, a healthy dose of pride in the vibrant LGBT community here at Cambridge.

Summary: Check that you’re eligible to vote, come to the open meeting/hustings tomorrow at 7.30pm and vote in the election over the weekend!

Hi,

The nominations for the by election are now closed and I can confirm the candidates are as follows:

Finance & Sponsorship Officer:
Emma Brookes
RON (Re-Open Nominations)

[no definition] Editor:
Emi Dunn
RON

Please remember, nominations for the Grad Rep will be entered tomorrow night at the open meeting and only need to be done in advance if you cannot attend.

As no nominations were received for the Welfare Officer, nominations are reopened as of now and will close 7 days after the first nomination is received. I will do my best to notify everyone of the deadline ASAP once I have received a nomination.

You need to check if you are on the electoral roll. Please go to https://www.vote.cusu.cam.ac.uk/lgbt/11-12/byelectionoct/, log in with your Raven and check that you are listed as eligible to vote. Do not assume you are just because you are reading this email. A significant number of people were not added because they are signed up to [LISTINGS] with a non @cam.ac.uk address (implying they are not a Cambridge student) or they have not provided a name (this is not compulsory for [LISTINGS] but the voting system requires a name). If you are not down as eligible to vote you need to email me (lgbt-chair@cusu.cam.ac.uk) with your name (initial and surname at a minimum) from your @cam.ac.uk email confirming you are a student and that you identify as LGBT (or a related minority gender or sexual identity). This needs to be done ASAP, and before 11.59pm on Friday so I can add you to the roll before it is locked automatically before the election.

To vote you MUST be a Cambridge student (undergrad or postgrad) and self identify as LGBT (or a related minority gender or sexual identity). If you do not meet both these criteria and you vote you will be doing so fraudulently – please email me to be removed from the roll. Please note, however, that anyone may subscribe to our mailing lists and attend our events – the restriction is only on voting and is to do with CUSU LGBT’s autonomy from CUSU – please email me if you would like more info on this.

Remember, hustings will be held tomorrow at the open meeting (more details will be sent about this later this evening) at 7.30pm at Sidney Sussex.

Voting will be held online from Saturday – 8am till Monday – 1pm and then in paper at the CUSU Offices on the New Museums Site from Monday – 2pm till Monday – 5pm.

Please note, by voting online, your CRSiD will be added to a list of voters that anyone eligible to vote to can see. To avoid this, please vote on paper.

Summary: Please run in the by election and come to the Open Meeting on Friday, October 21st @ 7.30pm in Sidney Sussex College.

Hi all,

I hope you all are well and have had a good Summer Vac and a good first week of term. Welcome, to those who are new members of CUSU LGBT, and welcome back everyone else! Due to various member of the Exec resigning after completing their degrees, we have a number of openings on the committee that urgently need filling. The available positions are as follows:

Welfare Officer – (ben.w.vincent@gmail.com)

[no definition] Editor – (hattiejones89@gmail.com)

Additional Grad Rep (lgbt-grad@cusu.cam.ac.uk)

Finance & Sponsorship Officer

(Please note, the Exec is going to be proposing removing the F&S officer role as we feel it has become largely redundant. You should feel free to run for it though, as if we have an incumbent they will remain in the role until the end of this Exec year (end of Lent term) when the Exec is re-elected. However, please be aware that you may not being doing all that much finance & sponsorship stuff (given the reasons we’re proposing to remove it!) but you will still be able to be a useful member of the Exec. It may be a good way of getting some experience on the Exec (especially for a Fresher) before running ‘properly’ in Lent for a year long role.)

I have provided the email addresses of the best people to contact for more info on the individual roles but feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Pleas note, nominations for the Welfare Officer or [nd] Editor may consist of two people although this is to allow two people to run together as a team, not to allow the runner up in the election to also be elected! Nominations for the Grad Rep and F&S Officer must only consist of one person.

Nominations are open as of now and will close at noon on Thursday, 20th October. If you wish to run (not including the grad rep role) please email me (lgbt-chair@cusu.cam.ac.uk) with your full name, your manifesto (up to 300 words) and please include the sentence; “I agree to bound by the CUSU LGBT constitution, it’s appendices and I confirm that myself, my proposer and my seconder self identify as LGBT (or a related, minority sexual or gender identity) and are currently members of CUSU.”. Please send this email from you @cam.ac.uk and cc (using their @cam addresses) your proposer and seconder (who must be LGBT students at Cambridge).

Hustings will be held at the open meeting (see below) and you will be expected to make a speech in favour of your candidacy of up to 3 minutes (although this is a maximum rather than an expectation!) and then answer questions from the members present. If you wish to run for the grad rep role then you just need to show up on the night and indicate you wish to run (although the election process for rep roles is different the position is equal with all other roles)! If you cannot make the Open Meeting you must send me a speech to be read out on your behalf.

Being on the Exec is great fun and really rewarding and I would highly recommend it. Each role has it’s own duties and in addition you will be expected to attend the weekly meetings. However, these rarely run much over 30 mins and are arranged for mutually convenient times (usually at weekends).

The Open Meeting will be held in the Knox Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex (opposite Sainsbury’s – the same room used for the Freshers’ Event) at 7.30pm on Friday, 21st October. If you wish to submit a motion please email me. It’s really important that the Campaign moves in the direction our members want it to so please do submit a motion if there’s something you want done! Also, don’t worry about writing the text of a motion if you don’t want to, as long as you give us enough warning we can help you put one together. Motions need to be proposed and seconded by CUSU LGBT members and if you don’t know anyone who is willing to second your motion then let us know ASAP. The deadline for motions will be noon on Thursday, 20th October.

The Exec will be bringing a number of motions laying out our plans for the year so it should be a really interesting meeting and the more people we have there the better it will be! Snacks and drinks will be provided so do come along!

// IN BRIEF //
– Tonight is a “Welcome Back” Rendezvous at The Cow with the usual drinks deals and such
– Wednesday sees Week Zero Drinks (which will double up for many LGBT families as a Meet-the-Parents too) from 8:30pm at The Vaults, to precede the first Rendez2 of the term at Kambar
– Thursday sees the GU LGBT Freshers event from 6pm at the Grad Union
– Friday sees a Women’s Film Night in the Trinity College BA TV Room, 7:30-10:30pm
– Next Monday is our big Freshers’ Launch Party at the Knox Shaw Room, Sidney Sussex, from 8:15pm. And of course The Cow will be on thereafter…!

// WEEK ZERO DRINKS (A.K.A. MEET THE PARENTS) – 8:30pm, Wednesday, The Vaults //
We thought that next Monday was too long to wait for a drinks event, so we’re rocking out Week Zero with one as well. Lots LGBT families will be meeting here over drinks, although many will have already met by this point. Obviously, everyone’s welcome whether or not they’re not part of a LGBT family! It’ll be a good chance to catch up with familiar faces and meet less familiar ones over some excellent drinks deals, namely 2-for-£6 cocktails, £1.50 Jagerbombs and £2.50 Peronis.

// CLUBNIGHTS AS USUAL! //
Rendezvous will be running every Monday from now until at least Week 8. This week is Welcome Back. Next week will be themed towards freshers. I wouldn’t miss either! Secondly, Rendez2 starts again this Wednesday and then runs every even week.

// FRESHERS LAUNCH //
More details closer to the time, but block out Monday evening…

// PARENTING IS STILL OPEN… //
…for either fresher or current student sign ups. Hopefully I’ll be allocating families during the next couple of days as more freshers sign up who are now here. So far the turnout has been huge with 85 people involved in the scheme in some way!

Have a wonderful week and I look forward to seeing everyone at the events over the next few days!

The new No Definition – the magazine created by you and the community- is
out! Come and help us celebrate this joyful moment at the Launch Party on
May 2nd!

There will drinks, there will be nibbles, there will be good company, but
most importantly, there will be many copies of [ND] floating around so that
you can read it before it gets delivered to colleges.

So take that long deserved revision break and join us at Queens’ Old Hall
from 8pm onwards!

Whether you’re new to the scene and want to meet people, a golden oldie who fancies a catch up with old friends, want to find true love, or just fancy a friendly chat, SPEED DATING IS FOR YOU!!! We can guarantee you won’t regret it!!! Regular speed dating allows you to find a potential partner. But we provide you with a 2-4-1 deal!!! 1) Maybe find that elusive one-and-only 2) Meet people as friends and stay in touch!

There’s a WHOLE load of AMAZING people out there just waiting to be met!

The event will be running at Sidney Sussex, Andrews Room, from 8 until 10. (Follow the signs to get there). Wine and nibbles will be provided from 7.30 onwards for general mingling

If you’re convinced, then just send me (nscc2) an email with the following details:
Name / College / Gender / Orientation / Are you interested in friends as
well as dates? / Availability (8-9/9-10/8-10)

As capacity is sadly limited, places will be on a first-come-first serve basis, so book your place now!